The system, being built in the city of Chongqing over the next two to three years, is among the largest and most sophisticated video-surveillance projects of its kind in China, and perhaps the world. Dubbed “Peaceful Chongqing,” it is planned to cover a half-million intersections, neighborhoods and parks over nearly 400 square miles, an area more than 25% larger than New York City.

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The project has also drawn interest from other U.S. companies, including Hewlett-Packard and software maker Intergraph.

Critics, including Amnesty International, say technology companies have a moral obligation to forgo participation in such projects because the equipment could be used to suppress political dissent. “In China there’s ample evidence that they use” video surveillance “to crack down and then criminalize activity which should not be criminalized,” says Amnesty International researcher Corinna-Barbara Francis.

The companies counter that they cannot control how a product is used once it’s been sold, and that asking them to stay out of the lucrative China market on that basis is unfair. “It’s not my job to really understand what they’re going to use it for,” H-P executive Todd Bradley told the Journal. “Our job is to respond to the bid that they’ve made.”

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